Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep
by ilovetvalot
Summary: David Rossi awaits his lover's return. TENDER SLASH


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**Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep**

David Rossi lifted his head and punched his down filled pillow ineffectually. Glaring heatedly at the empty spot next to him in his king size bed, he resolutely reminded himself that this should be his last night of solitude. In just a few short hours, his lover would be home. And maybe...just maybe, he'd finally be able to get a decent night's rest.

Who'd have thought that David Rossi couldn't sleep without someone to snuggle next to?

But it was more than just merely sleeping alone. It was everything…the entire process of living. Eight months of retirement still hadn't managed to prepare him for these gut wrenching absences...absences he should have been familiar with. Hell, he'd lived a nomad's life for half his life himself. But for the first time in his long life, he actually felt a momentary shame for never listening to any of his three ex-wives complaints. It was only now that he was the one on the receiving end that he understood what they'd meant.

He'd always been the one that left before...he'd never been the party left behind.

It sucked. There wasn't any eloquent turn of phrase that could describe the feeling. Going to bed without that familiar body beside him...it was wrong. Surely life wasn't meant to be spent this way, was it?

He'd been spoiled; he could admit that to himself. Used to getting his own way. Used to the luxury that working on the same team had afforded him...the time it had given them together as a couple and as coworkers. But his aging body had finally called a halt to field work, and he'd been relegated to confining his expertise to the cold and unfeeling Federal Building.

Which, while less than ideal, still allowed them to spend more time together than most couples.

Usually.

But the team's most recent case had dragged on for weeks. Seemingly unending weeks. And he missed his partner. Desperately.

As trite as it sounded...and Dave realized that it did...his house had become a mere shell around him, an empty husk that he simply existed in without the person he loved. And worse still, he knew the dangers his love faced. He'd been there. He'd seen the horrors...the atrocities. And knowing that he wasn't there to protect what he treasured most was something he was still learning to deal with.

Slowly learning to deal with. Change did not come easy to the immovable force that was David Rossi.

Flopping in the bed as he tried to get comfortable again, he smiled as he remembered those early days together when they'd both been feeling their way, both awkward, both nervous. Neither one of them had excellent track records in the relationship department. Both had loved and lost. One of them with more frequency than the other, that was true. But, he liked to think it had only served to make them stronger...more committed to each other and everything they'd painstakingly built between them.

Sighing as he glanced at the glowing green numerals of the alarm clock on the bedside table, his heart sank a little. He'd hoped that there might be a chance for an earlier reunion. He knew the team had technically finished with their case hours ago, the plane supposedly leaving the ground earlier in the evening. But, like everything at the Bureau, a case was never really closed until the paperwork had been filed. And that alone, he knew from personal experience, could involve hours of work.

Hours of work that was obviously designed to keep them apart.

Regretfully closing his eyes, his mind drifted over the last ten years, remembering what equated to the happiest time in his life. He was almost sixty years old...in the twilight of his life… and he'd found true love.

He could have been bitter about it. It would have been a legitimate response. But, for him, he was too busy being grateful that he'd found it at all. Hovering on the brink of slumber, he could sleepily concede that many never did.

It might have been minutes or hours, he didn't know, but Dave woke abruptly as he felt the mattress dip beside him and a warm familiar body conform to his back. "You're home," he murmured, groggy, but happy as an arm slid comfortably around his waist. "I missed you," he breathed as moist lips pressed to his bare shoulder blade.

"Mmmm," his lover hummed against his skin, "Me, too."

Grimacing through his smile as icy feet slid between his legs and cold hands slid through the hair at his chest, Dave grumbled affectionately, "You're freezing."

"Winter's here," a voice resonated in the darkness.

Turning over, Dave pulled his lover's chilled body against his warmth. "Is that any way to greet me after weeks away?" he admonished gently, kissing the parted lips before him in greeting, slipping his tongue inside the moist mouth in front of him and tangling their tongues sweetly. Pulling back slightly, Dave smiled. "You're early," he smiled happily, the tone one that he found himself using far more these days.

"JJ pulled some strings with the pilot to get us out of there faster. And frankly, since I haven't slept well in days without you, I was more than ready."

"I heartily echo that sentiment," Dave murmured, pressing a chaste kiss to his tired partner's lips. Tugging the slowly warming body closer in his arms, Dave whispered, "Go to sleep, babe. Our more elemental reunion can wait until tomorrow morning."

"I love you," came a grateful sigh.

Smiling contentedly as he watched his love's heavy eyes drift closed, Dave buried his nose in Aaron Hotchner's dark hair and allowed himself to truly relax for the first time in more days than he wanted to count.

"Now, I lay me down to sleep," he breathed softly, contentment finally surrounding him completely.

_**Finis**_


End file.
